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somewhat

UK/ˈsʌmwɒt/US/ˈsʌmwʌt/
adverbB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,615 of 15,258leans writtenformal · an editor’s judgement

Somewhat means to a moderate degree. More than slightly, and less than very.

It is a hedging word and a formal one, which is why reports and academic writing use it far more than conversation does. Somewhat surprised, somewhat higher, somewhat of a problem. British English often uses it for understatement, so somewhat disappointing can mean a disaster. It usually sits directly before the adjective or adverb it softens. Rather and fairly do the same job in less formal registers.

Definitions of somewhat

  1. 1adverbsomewhatTo a moderate extent.B2

    “The results were somewhat better than expected.”

Where it comes from

From some + what.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

somewhat in the wild

  • The rim of Encke is low and somewhat polygonal in shape.

    Encke (crater)

  • To the east-northeast of Davisson is the walled plain Oppenheimer, a formation only somewhat smaller than Leibnitz.

    Davisson (crater)

  • The rim is somewhat lower along the north edge than elsewhere.

    Dale (crater)

  • But the center has moved somewhat over time.

    Icaria Fossae

  • The antenna are somewhat as in Aulacigastridae and Neminidae.

    Teratomyzidae

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.